


Teacups and Goldfish

by Rumbellelives



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AND IT'S CUTE, Adorable, F/M, Fluff, Rumbelle - Freeform, rumbelle fluff, they go on a date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 04:58:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5730325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumbellelives/pseuds/Rumbellelives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumple and Belle go on a date at the annual Storybrooke Fall Fair. Written for Rumbelle fic-a-thon 2016. The prompt was "Belle wins something for Rumple", prompted by MarieQuiteContrarie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teacups and Goldfish

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MarieQuiteContrarie (SeaStar1330)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaStar1330/gifts).



> This was written for my Rumbelle fic-a-thon. The prompt was “Belle wins something for Rumple” by mariequitecontrarie. (I hope you enjoy this story. I spent a lot of time squealing at how cute Rumbelle is and not enough time actually writing it… but still, I hope you like it.)
> 
> Set: Post Zelena’s death, pre Rumbelle wedding… (pretending there is a few days in between the two events)

Despite everything that has happened over the last few days, they go on a date. Belle thinks it’s a bad idea. Rumple doesn’t seem to mind, showing up at her doorstep with a little grin on his face and a single rose clutched tightly in his left hand. 

Belle smiles as she opens the door, feeling her heart warm a little. “Hey,” she says.

“Hey,” he replies, flourishing the rose in front of her face. She can smell the sweet scent as he twirls the crimson petals under her nose. 

“Is that for me?” she asks him. 

“Who else, my dear?” he responds, passing her the rose. She leaves it on the side table for when she gets home, stepping into the cool night air. 

XXX

Storybrooke’s fall carnival- it happens every year at the same time, yet people seem to forget it’s going to happen. (This year, the mad rush was because of Zelena- her presence in the town had caused an uproar but now that she was dead, people were beginning to relax again, and life was returning to normal.)

Rumple has never been. He has lived here in Storybooke as long as he has been in this realm and he has yet to go to one of these blasted carnivals. He has really had no desire to. 

But now, Belle drags him by the hand, a little grin on her face that sends warm shivers into his heart. 

He would do anything if it would get a smile out of her. So he goes to the carnival, despite the fact that all he wants to do is sit on his couch and read the paper. 

They walk up to the front gate, and to Rumple’s alarm, Regina is the one passing out the tickets. 

“What are you doing here?” she asks. She is wearing a blue pantsuit, black hair pulled back from her face with a simple pin. If he didn’t know any better, she would have looked like a normal business woman.

“I’m here with my fiancé,” Rumple responds, his voice cold. He can feel Belle clutch his hand a little tighter, her warm fingers wrapping around his own. 

“He has every right to be here,” Belle says. 

“I told you to lay low for a few days… to let people cool off about that whole Zelena… incident,” Regina responds. The tickets wrinkle in her tight grip and Rumple lets out a sigh

“Let’s go, Belle… It was a bad idea to come here,” he says, trying to pull her back. For a woman in heels, Belle sure can hold her ground. She doesn’t budge, squaring her shoulders at Regina and giving the woman her most defiant glare. 

Rumple would be laughing in any other situation. He loves the way her chin juts out and the way her eyes glisten with some sort of fire. 

“Listen, Regina,” Belle says. “Rumple did nothing wrong with Zelena. She was controlling him with the dagger. If anyone has a problem with him, send them straight to me.”

With that, she entwined her arm around Rumple’s own and dragged him past the ticket booth straight into the fair. 

She had so much faith in him. 

If only she knew what he had actually done…

XXX

“Where are we going in such a rush?” Rumple asks her. She isn’t walking all that terribly fast, but she walks with purpose, ignoring the flashy lights and expertly dodging the screaming children that run by. 

“You’ll see… there’s a ride I want us to go on first!” she says. 

Oh joy…. he thinks to himself. A ‘ride’… he should have just told her he didn’t feel like going. They could have stayed in and watched a movie or had a nice dinner.

As soon as he sees this ride however, he knows there is no way he can’t ride it. 

The ride is a huge circle of teacups, all spinning around each other. Each of the cups are painted a different color, his eyes following the little green one, which is currently occupied by Henry. 

“You see?” she asks. “It’s the teacup ride…. we have to go on it, Rumple!”

“It’s rather symbolic, isn’t it?” he asks, allowing her to pull him up to the gate and to the little yellow teacup. Rumple sits down in the ride, feeling rather ridiculous. Belle sits down next to him, snuggling up close to him despite the rather spacious bench in their teacup. 

The ride starts with a loud thrum, lurching into motion. They are going in a slow circle, Rumple watching as other people turn the wheels on the teacups and spin faster and faster into motion. He places his hands on the wheel and Belle puts hers on top of his. 

When the ride is over, his heart is racing from adrenaline (not because of the ride but because of Belle’s warm touch and her beautiful eyes staring into his own). 

XXX

Rumple doesn’t go on any more rides after this one, instead walking with Belle around the carnival, stopping whenever she saw something that struck her fancy. 

“There’s one thing you have to try before we leave,” he tells her. Ever since introducing her to hamburgers, he had always been looking for little foods for Belle to try. He had shown her ice cream, corndogs, and even sushi. 

He leads her up to the cotton candy stand, watching as Belle lights up. 

“They’re making little pink clouds!” she says. 

“Little pink clouds that you can eat,” Rumple responds, accepting the cotton candy and leading Belle away. 

He ripped off a piece for her. She holds it for a second, looking down on it like it’s some sort of delicacy and not a two dollar snack from a food stand. When she puts it on her tongue, her eyes light up. She takes another piece from him and lets it melt in her mouth. 

“This is amazing…. how do they do that… make it look like this?” she asks. 

“It’s sugar that’s been cooked and spun,” he says. “Not hard to do, really.”

“We might have to buy more of this.” (Later he ends up buying another and then a bag for her to take home. Sure he spends almost ten dollars on nothing but sugar, but that was a small price to pay to see Belle smile again). 

XXX

It’s almost closing by the time they make it around the whole fair. Rumple’s feet are sore and he is actually kind of warm (he probably shouldn’t have worn a suit to a carnival, he realizes) but he has a smile on his face and his heart feels lighter than it has in a long time. 

“Wait I want to try this game,” she says. “Last thing before we leave.”

Rumple doesn’t have the heart to tell her no, so he stands by as she passes a couple dollar bills to Archie, who is sitting behind the booth. 

“Throw a ping pong ball into one of the bowls and you get to take home a fish,” Archie says with a little grin. Rumple looks over to his side, where his little dalmatian Pongo is sitting. 

“It’s harder than it looks, just to warn you,” Archie says, passing her three ping pong balls. 

Rumple stands to the side, watching as Belle aims. Her brown hair cascades in little waves down her back. Her brow crinkles in concentration. He wants to reach out and run his fingers over the smooth skin of her jaw. 

He’s not even watching her throw the balls anymore, just focusing on her. She is so beautiful. 

“Yes!” she exclaims, making him jump out of his thoughts. One of the ping pong balls floats in a bowl, where a little gold fish swims frantically back and forth. 

“Nice job, Belle!” Archie says, picking the bowl up and passing it to her. “That’s yours now.”

Belle looks down at the fish and then passes it to Rumple. “Actually it’s his.”

“Belle…. a fish? I don’t need…” Rumple responds but she cuts him off. 

“I’m giving him to you as a gift, Rumple….” Belle says laughing. “Besides, your house seems kind of lonely for just one man to be living there. Take the fish to keep you company… until the wedding that is.”

Rumple can’t argue with her. He accepts the bowl, the glass cold to the touch. He holds it up to his eyes and studies the little goldfish, watching him swim in circles. 

“Thank you, Belle.”

She may have won hima fish today, but he knows that it’s something more. She won him back from the darkness, won his heart today and every day since the day he met her. She is the reason he is still alive. 

And he can never thank her enough for that. 

 


End file.
